PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT FUND

Free Trade of the Americas ^ | February 17, 2004 | FTAA – CONSULTATIVE GROUP ON SMALLER ECONOMIES

[hedgetrimmer]

Concern surrounding the need to address the issue of disparities and to turn trade into a tool for furthering development is not exclusive to the FTAA. Such concern can in fact be found in other realms, since the widespread economic opening processes have failed to automatically bring about the conditions needed to overcome the problems of backwardness, inequality, and poverty that beset so many countries around the world. At the multilateral level, both the United Nations System of Organizations and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have shown a growing interest in tackling the issue.

As far as the United Nations is concerned, the Heads of State and Government of the whole world jointly agreed, at the Millennium Summit held in 2000, to adopt a far-reaching plan to facilitate the pursuit of worldwide development goals. These goals (reducing extreme poverty, promoting gender equality, expanding education, reducing infant and maternal mortality, reversing the loss of environmental resources, and improving reproductive health) have thus become the cohesive force driving many of the activities and defining the targets of agencies such as the OECD, the IMF, the World Bank, etc. In line with this approach, the and thereby ensuring improvements in the international arena in which the efforts of the least advanced countries are being undertaken.

As far as the WTO is concerned, it should be borne in mind that the Marrakesh Agreement of 1994, whereby the organization is established, states that: "...the need for positive efforts to ensure that developing countries and the least developed countries secure a share in the growth in international trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development...” and, to a large extent, that the controversy about the implementation of commitments assumed in the Uruguay Round stems from the human limitations and insufficient resources developing countries face when trying to create the infrastructure needed for them to meet their new obligations and adapt their legislation accordingly, limitations which, according to the WTO itself, “must concern every Member, not just the countries subject to them” 1/In this respect, in another recent WTO document, it is suggested, as far as outstanding institutional tasks are concerned, that: “It is a core function of the Secretariat to assist developing countries to build the human and institutional capacity they need to participate more fully in the work of the system and derive maximum benefits from it… Of the WTO’s members…80% are developing countries. The development dimension therefore has to be, and is, a central element in the WTO’s activities.” 2/

At the Doha Ministerial Meeting, the WTO also highlighted the importance of helping developing countries in their integration processes, stating that: “The Doha Development Agenda recognizes that technical assistance and capacity-building are essential to assist developing countries to implement WTO rules and obligations, prepare for effective participation in the work of the WTO, and thus to benefit from the open rules-based multilateral trading system. Therefore, all Members of the WTO and the Secretariat have the shared responsibility to generate support for technical assistance and capacity-building in favor of developing and less-developed countries.”3 /

Concern about the differences in the sizes and levels of development of the economies has always been present in the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Since the Santiago and Miami Summits, both the Declarations of Principles and Action Plans and the mandates handed down as a result of those documents, have stressed the importance of the FTAA process contributing to raising living standards, to improving the working conditions of all peoples in the Americas, and to better protecting the environment, all areas in which addressing the issue of disparities plays a key role. In this respect, in the Toronto Ministerial Declaration of 1999, the Ministers stated: "…We reiterate that in designing the FTAA we shall take into account differences in the levels of development and size of the economies in our Hemisphere, to create opportunities for the full participation of the smaller economies and to increase their level of development. We recognize the broad differences in the levels of development and size of the economies in our Hemisphere…”4 /

[hedgetrimmer]

In black and white for all the "free traders". The new FTAA treaty is more about a COMMUNIST AGENDA, foreign aid and income equality and wealth redistribution, than it is about trade. This is document produced by an FTAA consultive group. It never talks about tariffs or trade, but it talks about setting up a "fund" with money from the members of the WTO(us) that is to be given away to least advanced countries .

Doesn't everyone see that by their own words they are not promoting "free trade"? And if "free trade" was so great, these least advanced countries should be able to make themselves wealthy through trade-- but thats not the goal and it never has been. These least advanced countries want to be given money, they do not want to earn it.

Everything about these trade agreements is antiAmerican. It forces Americans to pay into the WTO and the FTAA like a giant welfare system while at the same time forces our economy into the sewer so that we can have an "equality" of member states in the hemisphere.

I dare any "free traders" to dispute this. Here it is in their own words, in their own treaties and agreements.

In their own words trade is a tool to achieve their goals .

[hedgetrimmer]

PING

[hedgetrimmer]

PING

[hedgetrimmer]

FTAA - Free Trade Area of the Americas

Draft Agreement

Article 1. [Treatment of Differences in the Levels of Development and Size of the Economies]

In the implementation of this Agreement, special and differential treatment that takes into account levels of development and size of the economies of the Parties shall be accorded.

The differential treatment for countries with different levels of development and size of their economies is a fundamental principle of this Agreement. Both the Parties and the entities of the FTAA are obliged to abide by the provisions on the issue, found in all chapters of the Agreement

**

QUOTATION: All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

ATTRIBUTION: George Orwell (1903–1950), British author. Animal Farm, ch. 10 (1945).

[hedgetrimmer]

The whole think stinks for us, but it grants some very special privileges to countries run by communists, like Venezuela.

I think its really important to inform the American people just what this "trade' agreement is all about.

[expat_panama]

important to inform the American people just what this "trade' agreement is all about

So let's ban all trade while we're at it?  Or do we give some select committee the right to pick what trade is good and which trade is bad.  As for me,  I like the idea that we lower taxes (including import taxes) and we get the government off our backs so we can feed our families. 

The UN doesn't scare me- there's a lot of things wrong with the UN, but black helicopters isn't one of them. 

[hedgetrimmer]

So let's ban all trade while we're at it?

Who said that?

Or do we give some select committee the right to pick what trade is good and which trade is bad

That actually is supposed to be our Congress if you believe that we are a Constitutional Republic. It is NOT some foreign national in some bureaucractic supranational association of "states".

It takes real imagination to say that a direct quote from the FTAA draft trade agreement which states it is implementing UN directives in print for everyone to see, is a "black helicopter" conspiracy.

[templar]

Anyone still unsure about free trade and it's intended purpose should no longer be confused about what it is intended to accomplish. Whether it is good or bad would, of course, depend on ones political leanings. Free traders won't be persuaded though, they have already made up their mind; or they don't care about the intended purpose.

[hedgetrimmer]

The socialist/communist language of these treaties and agreements should wave red flags to every American. It is indisputable that the FTAA is a form of hemispheric communism. It is indisputable given the fact that the member "states" of the FTAA are using "trade as a tool to meet their goals".

[hedgetrimmer]

Free trade is not defined by the FTAA

Free Trade Association of the Americas. They define "free trade" as to be practiced in the wester Hemisphere.

**
The effort to unite the economies of the Americas into a single free trade area began at the Summit of the Americas, which was held in December 1994 in Miami, U.S.A. The Heads of State and Government of the 34 democracies in the region agreed to construct a Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, in which barriers to trade and investment will be progressively eliminated. They agreed to complete negotiations towards this agreement by the year 2005 and to achieve substantial progress toward building the FTAA by 2000. The Heads of State and Government further directed their ministers responsible for trade to take a series of concrete initial steps to achieve the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Their decisions regarding these steps are contained in the Miami Summit's Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action.

FIRST SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
Declaration of Miami
December 19-11, 1994


We reiterate our firm adherence to the principles of international law and the purposes and principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter and in the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS)

It is politically intolerable and morally unacceptable that some segments of our populations are marginalized and do not share fully in the benefits of growth. With an aim of attaining greater social justice for all our people, we pledge to work individually and collectively to improve access to quality education and primary health care and to eradicate extreme poverty and illiteracy.

This is how American trade is being redefined in the world. It is a typical ploy of the communists to take a benign word or idea, like free trade, and give it a new meaning, a redefinition. That is exactly what they have done with the WTO and are doing with the FTAA.

[hedgetrimmer]

Well since there is no "free trade" with other countries, then you shouldn't object to America practicing the same trade rules our competitors are practicing, such as use of tariffs and protecting our industries from dumping.

[expat_panama]

Free Trade Association of the Americas. They define "free trade"

The UN controls neither the English language nor the American people.  But if you like their definition, then for the sake of discussion I'll hate what you call 'free trade' too.. 

But I don't care what we call a tariff, it's a tax and I vote against higher taxes.  You can call my freedom to choose my vendors anything you want --but I think it's a shame to call it 'communism'.  Words used to mean things, I still say that increased regulation of the economy is not conservatism.

[GOP_1900AD]

Like all previous utopian mass movements, this one shall too result in utter disaster. Western liberal utopianism is on the verge of reaching its ultimate false height before the subsequent ultimate fall, perhaps the last one for Western civilization.

[GOP_1900AD]

No one is saying to ban all trade. But do not let either trade, or, other utopian internationalist mass movements which ride so called "free trade's" coattails, supercede national sovereignty and the US Constitution. It's really as simple as that. Do you disagree? Which is more important to you - the USA (and its constitution and sovereignty) or the obsessive perfection of globalism and trade? Which do you chose?